University Libraries > User Guides > Database Guides

PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, provides access to over 17 million citations from more than 4,800 biomedical journals dating back to the 1950s.

To access PubMed with links to URI’s serial holdings, visit the Library’s list of health sciences databases at http://www.uri.edu/library/reference_databases/index.html.

Basic Search: Enter search term(s) in the query box displayed on the database’s main page. Combine more than one search term or phrase with AND (in caps). Use the OR operator to retrieve results that include at least one of the terms listed. You can view the way your search was translated by selecting the “Details” tab.

PubMed search screen.
PubMed search screen.

Limits: This option retrieves citations with more precision by specifying criteria (i.e. author, year, journal). The Limits tab is located on PubMed’s main page.

PubMed search results, "Summary" display.
PubMed search results, “Summary” display.

After performing a successful search, a brief list of citations will appear on the results page. The following actions can then be performed:

Search for similar articles by selecting “Related Articles.”
Click on a highlighted title to read the citation’s abstract and view a sample list of related articles.
Save your results by checking the result boxes and selecting options in the “Send To” drop box. Your references can be emailed, saved, or temporarily pasted to the Clipboard.
The History feature enables you to view, combine, or reproduce your previous search strategies.

Article reference, "Abstract" display.
Article reference, “Abstract” display.

Once you have found the citation you want, carefully mouse over the journal abbreviation in the citation to view the full journal name. You may also use the “Journals Database” (located in the sidebar on the left of the screen) to translate the journal abbreviations given in the citations to the full titles of the journals.

PubMed Journals Database.

If you have any questions on how to use PubMed, please visit or contact the Reference Desk at (401) 874-2653, or send an instant message to URILibrarian on AIM.

R. Devin • 9/98; rev. 3/00, 3/03, 8/03, 6/08 (with E. Jepson)